The view from here

Sketchbooks, 2014-1017

Daler Rowney Cachet

Fabriano Venezia

Moleskine: Planner, Watercolor

Pentallic Nature Sketch (spiral)

Stillman & Birn: Alpha, Beta (spiral)

Strathmore: Visual Journal (spiral), Toned Tan (spiral), Mixed Media (500 series)



Rogation Days

From Steve Roud's The English Year, p. 176-177:

Rogationtide is the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday immediately preceding Ascension Day, the 40th day after Easter Sunday.....It was traditionally the time for the faithful to go in procession around the parish, led by the clergy, carrying crosses and banners, giving thanks to God, and blessing the fields, crops, and animals. This three-day festival was inaugurated in Gaul, in the late fifth century, ostensibly as a direct response to a period of earthquakes, crop failures, and other disasters, and from there it spread to Rome and on to other parts of the Christian world. It was introduced to the English Church in 747 [A.D.], and came to be known as Rogation, from the Latin rogare, 'to ask or beseech'.
The division of the country into parishes also took place about this time, and although it is not clear when it happened, the procession to bless the fields came to include the notion of checking the parish boundaries, and what is now called 'beating the bounds' was born....

Ascension Day will be Thursday, May 25, this year. This blog continues to take its name from the annual practice of walking the parish boundaries, in the days just prior to it.

Plateau

I've reached a sketching plateau, over the past few months. The shift to the opacity of casein threw the gaps in my skill into high relief, so I have subscribed to ArtTutor.com, a British online art instruction service.  I'm pleased with the quality of teaching, value for the cost, ease of use, and  opportunity to interact with other students. The discipline of practice is up to me.

Note:  Art Tutor offers free instruction on its youtube channel, and coupons toward subscription content to followers on Facebook.

Experiment

Rose Red, Titanium White, Ivory Black

I am playing with Richeson Casein for the month of April.  James Gurney and Stephen Quiller like it, but not many contemporary artists seem to use it.

I am not used to opaque paint, so am at square one.  It is milk-based, and does not re-wet like watercolor and gouache, so you have to squeeze out only the amount you will use in one sitting.

I am using the paint in a Canson Montval 5.5 x 8.5, cold press, 140 lb, twelve-sheet watercolor tablet I had on the shelf. (I plan to use both sides of each page.) I read it is hard on brushes, so picked up an inexpensive set of Artist's Loft craft brushes. I am starting with freezer paper, clipped to a drawing board, for a palette.

The picture is of a prepared background using Rose Red, Titanium White, and Ivory Black.

Messy pages

Eggs

This messy, mixed media page began late at night. The object that reflected the most lamp light was the white egg timer (now gone over several times with chalk and white pastel, in an attempt to reclaim the lost white).

The next day, that sketch reminded me of an egg carton I opened a few days ago, to find one brown and eleven white eggs. I sketched it from memory, painted it with gouache, then prepared the lowest rectangle of the page with golden water color to match the table the timer sits on.

The chicks were an accident. I was drawing a border of eggs cracked open, and the far left one developed a beak and an eye, so I added legs and two chick siblings. (One of my earliest memories is being chased by the neighbors' barnyard chickens, when I tried to pet their baby chicks. The screen door swung shut behind me just after the first pecks landed; nerve endings sealed the memory.)

Today, I drew another carton from observation, then two of those eggs as they fried. (A row of narrow, protective cardboard cones ran between the two rows.) I used pastel pencils, colored pencil, and white charcoal, maybe even a little graphite.

I dug out a lino stamp I carved last year, inked it brown, and added its pattern to the page.

Sorry if the photo is not clear. I am still figuring out an alternative to the defunct Blogger app.

Artist, book maker, and Sketchbook Skool teacher Roz Stendahl:

I view my journal as a workbook for my brain. It’s a place for experimentation. In fact I feel so strongly about this that if I don’t get a really messy page every four or five pages I feel that I’m not pushing myself hard enough. 

The journal is a place for me to not only write down and draw what I see in my daily life, but to reflect upon it and to experiment and to develop new skills. Drawing skills, writing skills, to just work.

The Pentallic Nature Sketch journal is nearly filled. I have gotten my money's worth out of it. 

Irish blessing, in memory of an Irish friend, on St. Patrick's Day

May the road rise to meet you...                                                  

May the wind be ever at your back....

May the sun shine warm upon your face...

The rains fall soft upon your fields...

May the prayers of those whose lives you've touched...

Whose hearts you've wared...

Light your way into the arms of the Good God...

Who has awaited your coming lo these many years...

And when, together, you sit to learn...

The many reasons God is grateful that you have lived...

May God reward you by bringing you into the company...

Of all those whose love has fashioned you...

Into the wonderful person you are...

May our Gracious God hold you now and forever...

In the palm of His hand.

Lenten Sketchbook: Paul Soupiset

Drawing Close // Documentary on Illustrator Paul Soupiset from Isenhower Productions on Vimeo.

Artist Paul Soupiset sketches, designs, and illustrates from his community in San Antonio, TX.